Lemlem Hailu

Lemlem Hailu (Amharic: ለምለም ኃይሉ; born 25 May 2001) is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. She won the gold medal in the 3000 metres at the 2022 World Indoor Championships. Lemlem earned bronze in the 1500 metres at the 2019 African Games.

At age 16, she was the 1500 m 2017 World Youth champion to take a bronze in the event at the Youth Olympic Games a year later. She represented Ethiopia in the women's 1500 m at the 2019 World Championships and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Lemlem holds the world junior indoor record in the event.

Career At age 16, Lemlem Hailu gained first international experience at the 2017 World Youth Championships in Nairobi, where she won the 1500 metres event. A year later, she took gold over the distance at the African Youth Games held in Algiers and went to Argentina for Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, where she earned bronze in a combined 1500m event.

In February 2020, she set a world under-20 record for the indoor 1500 metres with a time of 4:01.79, breaking by 0.02 s previous mark set by her compatriot Gudaf Tsegay in 2016. The same month, Lemlem improved her record to 4m 1.57s, which was her fourth personal best achieved within three weeks. In October, she won the 1500m race at the Kip Keino Classic.

The next year, Lemlem became the 3000m World indoor champion in Belgrade with a season's best of 8:41.82. Elle Purrier St. Pierre won silver in 8:42.04 while Lemlem's compatriot Ejgayehu Taye was third in 8:42.23.

Achievements International competitions

Circuit wins, and National titles World Athletics Indoor Tour 3000 m overall winner: 2021, 2023 2021 (3000 m): Liévin Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, Toruń Copernicus Cup 2023 (3000 m): Karlsruhe Init Indoor Meeting World Athletics Continental Tour 2020 (1500 m): Nairobi Kip Keino Classic Ethiopian Athletics Championships 1500 metres: 2019, 2021

Personal bests 1500 metres – 4:00.32 (Castellón 2022) 1500 metres indoor – 4:01.57 (Liévin 2020) World U20 record 3000 metres – 8:34.03 (Doha 2019) 3000 metres indoor – 8:29.28 (Madrid 2021) 5000 metres – 14:34.54 (Paris 2023) Road Half marathon – 1:08:50 (New Delhi 2022)